Manage your KRAs

With the appraisals you have some KRAs (Key Result Areas) assigned to you.  Do you know these KRAs will be rated again when there will be another appraisal?  I think yes, you know this very well.

These KRAs are just like additional tasks assigned to you for the given appraisal period.  Are you managing your KRA’s?  You may ask me what is managing KRA and why should I do that?

KRA is just like any other task assigned to you.  The only difference is the project name is next appraisal and the project manager for release and delivery of this task is YOU.

As soon as you start thinking about the KRA’s in this way you can feel the gap between the actions you are following and the actions needed to complete these KRAs.  Let us think about what more can we do to successfully deliver our KRA points as expected.

Understanding the KRA

1. What is the meaning of your KRA
1. If you are unclear about this then the first step shall be to write down the actual meaning of the KRA
2. The meaning can be discussed with the Project Manager or pears.
2. What activities are expected in your KRA
1. Write down the activities required to fulfil the KRA
2. Write down any resources or tools you will be using for completing the KRA
3. Get this list approved from the project manager or the reporting authority who will be responsible for your next appraisal

 

Executing the KRA tasks

1. Assuming “Next Appraisal” as a project
1. Plan for the deliverables in your KRA
2. Provide a milestone plan for them
3. Write schedule, i.e. tentative dates for the completion of the milestones of your KRA activities
4. Write Acceptance criteria of the KRA.  When you will say that the KRA is done, what are the points that prove that the KRA is actually done?  Get these acceptance points approved so you can get a clear rating of 3,4 or 5 in the next appraisal
2. Monitor and Control the activities
1. Like any other project monitor the execution of these KRA’s
2. This is a unique situation where you are the project manager and at the same time you are resource responsible for completion of the project
3. Take decisions and find out any slippage in the task schedule according to the plan
4. Plan the days according to the health of your KRA project.  You will have to decide whether there is a fire in your project this time, and may be cancel some recreation activities for completion of the KRA tasks
5. Keep a log of all the activities done for the KRA tasks so that you can make them available when asked
3. Deliver the KRAs
1. If you can attain the KRA in less time or better than it was expected then you can get a rating of 4 or even 5 for it.  Earn the rating by proper planning and execution of the KRA tasks.
2. Appear for the appraisal discussion with all the related log files and data you have created for execution of KRA tasks.  You can also show your KRA plan, monitoring log and decisions you have taken while executing the KRA tasks.

With Regards

Tushar

Introspection

Exciting fact of corporate life is appraisal. Salary appraisal and performance appraisal. When it is your time HR department starts asking you about what you did in the past appraisal period? What you did which was expected? What you did which was out of the way? What was the value add you have provided in the appraisal period?

If you have not kept a record of the things you have done then this is not a simple task. What you can remember is just the last project you worked on, just the last 15 days of your corporate life. Oh God! How to recollect all the things done in the appraisal period? There must be some things which were done above expectations, there must be certain things done below expectations.

There is one way to recollect these things in an indirect manner. Just fire your email software and start looking at the archives of corporate mail. Fortunately we retain each and every mail we sent and received at least for 2 years. Going through each and every mail you start recollecting the incidences and the projects you worked on. You also recollect the special request you received for attending a client meeting at 10pm in office. You recollect there was a mail asking about the low quality of documentation from SEPG. This opens the whole appraisal period in front of you and you just have to keep noting down the points to elaborate on them and here you go, you have all the data as was required.

But this shall be the last method to do this thing. We must maintain our own track record. Usually as soon as you have gone through one appraisal you already know what needs to be recorded on a day to day basis. We shall have a log book of our highlights and lowlights where we shall log in our accomplishments and also our learning points.

Appraisal is a time when we can introspect our work life. We can think and plan for better productivity and things which will add more value to our deliverables.

with regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur


(Image courtesy Justin Hall)

Managing Expectations

As soon as a task is alloted to you to act upon, it is very necessary to understand the scope of the task and also about what is expected out of the task. The important thing to note down is the acceptance criteria. When a Manager or Technical lead assigns a task the acceptance criteria plays a vital role. It tells us what to do and what not to do in the task.

The things to note before the task execution is started are

• Input:
• What are the references?
• What are the assumptions?
• What are the constraints of the task?

• Output:
  
• What are the deliverables?
• The form of the deliverables?
• Scope and depth of the deliverable if it is a document.

If these things are not clear there is no point in starting the task. If you must start this must be conveyed to the Manager or Technical lead and it must be made clear that there can be an impact on the schedule if these things are not made clear soon.

The performance is measured according to how efficiently we manage the expectations of Manager. There may be situations when the assigned task looks simple and doable at first but when we actually start doing, it emerges as a challenge and difficult to complete. This point is the most crucial point of the expectation management concept. The fact that the task has become challenging is a risk item and must be raised before the Manager so it can be escalated or can be managed.

We must clearly state the fact that the task has become challenging and it seems difficult to achieve in the given time. At the most what will happen is, that the Manager will ask us to do our best and come up with the solution even if it takes additional efforts from our side. I agree that we may need to pour additional efforts into the task sometimes but this remains in the knowledge of the Manager that you have done extra work.

If the challenge or risk is not conveyed than the Manager remains with the feeling that the task is progressing and in the end when it is discovered that the task has not been completed then that failure is attributed to the concerned developer. Even if the developer has worked hard to achieve some part of the task somehow, the efforts are not appreciated, instead the non completion of the task is attributed to the developer.

We as a developer has tendency to jump into the coding mode and start coding but this ground work of getting the INPUT and OUTPUT right in front of us is very necessary and are part of expectation management.

A developer who raises flags well in advance in time, who manages expectations is seen as a good performer.



with regards
Tushar

(Image courtesy Stephen Martindale)